Morse’s dated image of Oxbridge ‘puts off state school pupils’

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John Thaw as Morse and Kevin Whately as Lewis in the TV series set in OxfordITV/Rex Features

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Alan Bennett’s film and play concerned boys applying to OxbridgeMarco Secchi/Getty Images

Nicola WoolcockEducation Correspondent

Last updated at 1:13PM, September 14 2012

Screen versions of Morse and The History Boys are partly to
blame for deterring state school pupils from humble backgrounds from
applying to Oxbridge, the new head of admissions at the University of
Cambridge told The Times.

Mike Sewell, whose remit includes increasing the number of state school
candidates, said that the university was keen to stop teenagers from making
“ill-informed decisions” which put them off applying to Cambridge.

“It’s a gradual process of chipping away at what you might call out-of-date
attitudes about Cambridge,” Dr Sewell said. “A variety of attitudes can
affect people’s judgments, one of which is

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